Letzigrund

Stadion Letzigrund
Letzi
Location Zurich, Switzerland
Coordinates 47°22′58.06″N 8°30′15.71″E / 47.3827944°N 8.5043639°E / 47.3827944; 8.5043639Coordinates: 47°22′58.06″N 8°30′15.71″E / 47.3827944°N 8.5043639°E / 47.3827944; 8.5043639
Owner City of Zurich
Operator City of Zurich
Capacity 26,104 (football),[1]
30,930 (EURO 2008),
30,000 (athletics),
50,000 (concerts)
Field size 105 x 68 m
Construction
Broke ground 15 November 2005
Built 2006–2007
Opened August 30, 2007
Construction cost CHF 120 million (2007)
Architect Bétrix & Consolascio, Frei & Ehrensperger[2]
General contractor Implenia
Tenants
FC Zürich
Grasshopper
FC Zürich Frauen
LC Zürich

 Letzigrund  is a stadium in Zürich, Switzerland, and the home of the athletics club LC Zürich, and the football clubs FC Zürich and Grasshopper Club Zürich. LC Zürich is a spin-off of FC Zürich whose members constructed the stadium in 1925. Grasshopper-Club is using it as their home stadium since 2007. The annual athletics meet Weltklasse Zürich—part of the IAAF Diamond League—takes place at the Letzigrund since 1928, as well as frequent open-air concerts. On the Letzigrund track on 21 June 1960, Armin Hary was the first human being to run the 100 metres in 10,0 seconds.[3]

Old stadium

Letzigrund
(old stadium)
Letzi
Location Zurich, Switzerland
Coordinates 47°22′58″N 8°30′16″E / 47.38278°N 8.50444°E / 47.38278; 8.50444 (Letzigrund (former stadium))
Owner FC Zürich (1925–1937),
City of Zurich (1937–2006)
Capacity 25,000 (football);
48,000 (concerts, 2006)
Construction
Opened 22 November 1925
Expanded 1947, 1958, 1973, 1984
Closed 20 August 2006
Demolished 2006
Tenants
FC Zürich, LC Zürich

It opened November 22, 1925 owned by the FC Zürich football club. During the Great Depression, ownership changed to the city of Zurich in 1937 which has operated it since. It underwent extensive remodeling in 1947, 1958, 1973, and 1984. Lighting was added in 1973. The first open-air concert was in 1996.

The capacity was 25,000 and the main pitch was 105 by 68 meters with athletics facilities. There were also three other playing fields: 2 lawns, 1 artificial turf and a small packed sand field. The old Letzigrund also contained a bar and a restaurant within the stadium.

The old stadium hit its highest capacity of 75,000 during Celine Dion's Falling Into You Tour. Notably, Tina Turner performed 2 sold-out performances at the old stadium during her highly successful Twenty Four Seven Tour.

AC/DC were scheduled to perform during their Razors Edge World Tour on September 6, 1991, but the show was cancelled.

Rock band Bon Jovi performed 4 concerts at the stadium, but the most notable was their The Crush Tour, with the August 30, 2000 show being recorded and released on VHS/DVD as The Crush Tour (album)

Concerts

Concerts at Letzigrund
DateArtistTourAttendance
23 June 1996 Bon Jovi These Days Tour —
1 and 2 November 1996 Tina Turner Wildest Dreams Tour —
26 June 1997 Céline Dion Falling Into You Around the World Tour —
1 July 1999 Céline Dion Let's Talk About Love World Tour —
30 June and 1 July 2000 Tina Turner Twenty Four Seven Tour —
30 August 2000 Bon Jovi Crush Tour —
20 June 2001 AC/DC Stiff Upper Lip World Tour —
26 June 2001 Bon Jovi One Wild Night Tour —
11 June 2003 Bon Jovi Bounce Tour —
2 June 2004 Paul McCartney Paul McCartney 2004 Summer Tour —
18 June 2004 Metallica Madly in Anger with the World Tour —
18 July 2005 U2 Vertigo Tour 44,260
11 and 12 September 2010 U2 U2 360° Tour 90,349
14 July 2011 Bon Jovi Bon Jovi Live 37,125
26 May 2012 Coldplay Mylo Xyloto Tour 48,826
9 July 2012 Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball World Tour 41,560
16 August 2012 Robbie Williams Take the Crown Stadium Tour 37,532
18 August 2012 Madonna The MDNA Tour 45,792
11 September 2013 Roger Waters The Wall Live 37,367
1 June 2014 Rolling Stones 14 On Fire 48,622
5 and 7 June 2015 AC/DC Rock or Bust World Tour 100,000
15 August 2015 Die Toten Hosen Am Anfang war der Lärm sold out
11 and 12 June 2016 Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams Tour 89,254
14 July 2016 Beyoncé The Formation World Tour 23,790
31 July 2016 Bruce Springsteen The River Tour 2016 36,728
12 August 2016 Rihanna Anti World Tour —

New stadium

In the Nineties, the athletics club Zürich was pushing for a modernisation of the facilities at Letzigrund in order to even better accommodate the athletes of Weltklasse Zürich. In 1997, the city parliament decided favourably on an upgrade of the stadium whereas parallelly, the city administration was working on a reconstruction plan.[4] At the same time, the owners of the Hardturm football stadium were after several smaller extensions also planning to reconstruct their stadium.

In 2003, the new Hardturm stadium was approved by the city population in a public vote, but subsequently, legal objections by neighbourhood and environmental groups put the timely realisation for the EURO 2008 tournament, for which it was chosen by UEFA in 2002 as one of eight venues, in jeopardy. As a result, the planning process for the new Letzigrund stadium was accelerated. In 2005, the city population approved in a vote the reconstruction of the public stadium, plus in a separate vote, the costs of temporarily adjusting the stadium to the requirements of EURO 2008.

Originally planned for 2009, the new Letzigrund stadium was now opened already on August 30, 2007.[5] The first sport event there was the annual Weltklasse Zürich on September 7 with 26500 spectators, the first football game was FC Zürich vs. Grasshopper Club Zürich on September 23. It hosted three games during the 2008 European championships, with a capacity of up to 30,000. The current capacity is 25,000, for football events, 30,000, for athletics and 50,000, for concerts.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ UEFA Europa League - Season 2011/12: Group D
  2. ↑ Bauten - Frei & Ehrensperger
  3. ↑ "10 Seconds Flat Race". Speed Endurance. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Reconstruction". City of Zurich administration, stadium management. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Letzigrund opening". Swissinfo. Retrieved February 13, 2015.

External links

Media related to Letzigrund-Stadion, Zürich at Wikimedia Commons

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